Alliance for Open Media Membership Tiers Explained

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a non-profit consortium founded to develop next-generation, royalty-free video and media technologies, most notably the AV1 codec. To support its mission, AOMedia operates a structured membership model divided into distinct tiers that define each participant's governance authority, working group access, and financial commitments. Beyond annual dues, all members are bound by a strict intellectual property rights policy designed to ensure that the technologies developed remain legally unencumbered and open for global commercial adoption.

Membership Tiers

AOMedia categorizes its participants into three primary levels of involvement:

• Governing Members (Board Level): This tier includes the founding organizations and major industry leaders (such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Intel). Governing members hold permanent or elected seats on the Board of Directors, directly steer the consortium's strategic and financial direction, approve technical charters, and vote on the final release of new specifications.
• General Members: This level is designed for commercial entities, hardware manufacturers, software developers, and streaming platforms that wish to participate actively in technical development. General members can join Working Groups, submit proposals, contribute to codebases, and influence technical specifications without taking on the administrative and operational responsibilities of the Board.
• Associate Members: Typically reserved for academic institutions, research organizations, open-source projects, and non-profits, this tier provides a pathway for technical contribution without the commercial-scale membership fees. Associate members participate directly in technical working groups and research initiatives.

Core Membership Obligations

Regardless of tier, participation in AOMedia carries critical legal, technical, and financial obligations:

• Royalty-Free Patent Licensing: The cornerstone of AOMedia's legal framework is its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy. Every member must grant a royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive license for any of their essential patent claims necessary to implement an AOMedia specification. This licensing commitment applies reciprocally across all members and users of the technology.
• Defensive Patent Commitments: Members agree that their patent licenses will remain intact as long as a licensee does not initiate patent infringement litigation against the AOMedia specification. If a third party sues an AOMedia implementer for patent infringement regarding that specification, the suing party loses their rights under the AOMedia patent grant.
• Annual Financial Dues: Members must pay annual membership fees scaled to their tier and corporate revenue. Governing members contribute the highest fees to cover administrative, legal, and operational overhead, while General members pay a reduced rate and Associate members typically qualify for fee waivers.
• Active Technical and Review Participation: Members who join specific Working Groups are obligated to engage in regular technical reviews, disclose potential patent conflicts according to the IPR timeline, and abide by standard antitrust and consortium collaboration guidelines.